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PERMISSION IS GIVEN BY JIM WAGNER TO COPY & DISTRIBUTE THIS REPORT FOR NON COMMERCIAL USE ONLY
ST. STEPHEN'S CHURCH SHOOTING
BASED ON OPEN-SOURCE INTELLIGENCE (OSINT) AS OF JUNE 18, 2022 A.D. • COMPILED & ANALYZED BY JIM WAGNER
DATE & TIME: June 16, 2022 at 6:22 p.m.
LOCATION: Saint Stephen’s Episcopal Church, Vestavia Hills (outside of Birmingham), Alabama. TYPE OF ATTACK: Active shooter, lone gunman.
SUSPECT: Robert Findlay Smith, 70 years old (occasional attendee of the church). Captured and jailed.
MOTIVE: Animosity towards Christian churches, of all denominations, for their Biblical pro-life beliefs.
WEAPONS USED: Pistol.
INJURIES OR DAMAGE: Three victims murdered (Walter “Bart” Rainey, 84, Sarah Yeager, 75, female, 84).
SITUATION: The church was hosting a small group meeting and dinner, referred to as a Boomers Pot Luck dinner. The gunman, who is known in the church, sat alone and didn’t eat dinner that night, even though fellow parishioners asked him to join them.
RED ACTION: The shooter, Smith, pulled a concealed pistol and immediately shot three people (two died on scene, and one at the hospital). A church member struck and subdued Smith, which stopped further murders, until the police arrived and took him into custody.
BLUE ACTION: A church member (in his 70s), right after three people had been shot, grabbed a folding chair, rushed the shooter, and struck him with it.
Vestavia Hills Police officers arrived on scene, responding to a 9-1-1 call of an active shooter. When they arrived, Smith was being held down by parishioners. After Smith was taken into custody a warrant for his home was issued and federal and local law enforcement searched it.
JIM WAGNER’S COMMENTARY: Reverend Doug Carpenter reported that the church member that stopped further deaths, “hit him with a folding chair, wrestling him to the ground, took the gun from him and hit him in the head with his own gun,” which would explain why Smith had a left black eye, some bruises on his forehead, and a small cut on the tip of his nose.
The Saint Stephen’s Episcopal Church’s website has not posted anything about the shooting. However, I went to the church’s website and found something that criminals or terrorists could exploit, and which every church should be aware of and avoid.
At the bottom of the church’s home page (https://www.ssechurch.org), under the headline INFO, the first category is Serving. This link goes to a calendar that lists upcoming events and worship services, and lists exactly who the greeters will be, who the ushers on duty will be, and other positions. Just looking at the upcoming Sunday service I know that there are four names on the list, and one of them is marked ACCEPT. By looking at every name for scheduled events and services I can determine the total number of ushers there are for the entire church. For most churches the number of ushers far outnumber the amount of security personnel (if a church even has a church security team), and any list of the number of ushers would indicate the approximate amount of security officers. Obviously, a list like this should not be public information, but be on a MEMBERS ONLY site. Such a precaution falls under Operations Security (OPSEC), which means protecting any information that adversaries could use.
All churches should list “Security” as one of their ministries, even if they don’t have one at this time. Then when a person goes to the website link it should state something like this:
If you have a military, law enforcement, or private security background, and are interested in joining our church security team please contact Pastor XXXXX at (XXX) XXX-XXXX or email XXXXXX@XXXXX.org
If you currently don’t have a church security team, or you don’t have any qualified members on it (those who have no experience in security but know that something is better than nothing), or you do have a team but need more people on it, then this is a way to recruit new members. It also puts in the mind of potential attackers that the church is a HARD TARGET because there is some sort of team. Of course, the congregation is never told how many members are on the security team (numbers and names are never revealed). The only person they should know for sure is the Director of Security, and that person’s name and contact information can be given if a person enquires about joining the security team.
Recruitment for the security team members should be placed in the bulletin once a quarter, and a stringent screen processes in place to make sure that no hostiles are recruited to the ranks.
It is unknown currently if Saint Stephen’s Episcopal Church has a security team or not. It is unknown if the hero who stopped the gunman was a church security officer, usher, or parishioner. Although this hero was in his 70s, many senior citizens fill the role of church security officers because few of the young are stepping up to the plate, or they are just not being recruited, and yet the next generation must see security as a permanent, vital, church ministry.
The lessoned to be learned in this tragic event is that even members of a church can become violent, and insider attacks are always problematic. Had there been a well-trained usher (trained in behavioral observation) or a church security officer at that event, then he or she may have noticed Smith being withdrawn, and perhaps other pre-conflict indicators. The church agent would have then approached Smith and asked him a few questions. Perhaps there would have an indication that “something is not right.”
Since an insider attack is always possible, realist training scenarios that include a change of behavior or suspicious activity, must be included from time to time. Indicators could be a divorce, loss of employment, a death in the family, or a growing hostility toward God or the church. Those who built on the wall, and those who carried burdens, loaded themselves so that with one hand they worked at construction, and with the other held a weapon. Every one of the builders had his sword girded at his side as he built. And the one who sounded the trumpet was beside me. Nehemiah 4:17-18
LOCATION: Saint Stephen’s Episcopal Church, Vestavia Hills (outside of Birmingham), Alabama. TYPE OF ATTACK: Active shooter, lone gunman.
SUSPECT: Robert Findlay Smith, 70 years old (occasional attendee of the church). Captured and jailed.
MOTIVE: Animosity towards Christian churches, of all denominations, for their Biblical pro-life beliefs.
WEAPONS USED: Pistol.
INJURIES OR DAMAGE: Three victims murdered (Walter “Bart” Rainey, 84, Sarah Yeager, 75, female, 84).
SITUATION: The church was hosting a small group meeting and dinner, referred to as a Boomers Pot Luck dinner. The gunman, who is known in the church, sat alone and didn’t eat dinner that night, even though fellow parishioners asked him to join them.
RED ACTION: The shooter, Smith, pulled a concealed pistol and immediately shot three people (two died on scene, and one at the hospital). A church member struck and subdued Smith, which stopped further murders, until the police arrived and took him into custody.
BLUE ACTION: A church member (in his 70s), right after three people had been shot, grabbed a folding chair, rushed the shooter, and struck him with it.
Vestavia Hills Police officers arrived on scene, responding to a 9-1-1 call of an active shooter. When they arrived, Smith was being held down by parishioners. After Smith was taken into custody a warrant for his home was issued and federal and local law enforcement searched it.
JIM WAGNER’S COMMENTARY: Reverend Doug Carpenter reported that the church member that stopped further deaths, “hit him with a folding chair, wrestling him to the ground, took the gun from him and hit him in the head with his own gun,” which would explain why Smith had a left black eye, some bruises on his forehead, and a small cut on the tip of his nose.
The Saint Stephen’s Episcopal Church’s website has not posted anything about the shooting. However, I went to the church’s website and found something that criminals or terrorists could exploit, and which every church should be aware of and avoid.
At the bottom of the church’s home page (https://www.ssechurch.org), under the headline INFO, the first category is Serving. This link goes to a calendar that lists upcoming events and worship services, and lists exactly who the greeters will be, who the ushers on duty will be, and other positions. Just looking at the upcoming Sunday service I know that there are four names on the list, and one of them is marked ACCEPT. By looking at every name for scheduled events and services I can determine the total number of ushers there are for the entire church. For most churches the number of ushers far outnumber the amount of security personnel (if a church even has a church security team), and any list of the number of ushers would indicate the approximate amount of security officers. Obviously, a list like this should not be public information, but be on a MEMBERS ONLY site. Such a precaution falls under Operations Security (OPSEC), which means protecting any information that adversaries could use.
All churches should list “Security” as one of their ministries, even if they don’t have one at this time. Then when a person goes to the website link it should state something like this:
If you have a military, law enforcement, or private security background, and are interested in joining our church security team please contact Pastor XXXXX at (XXX) XXX-XXXX or email XXXXXX@XXXXX.org
If you currently don’t have a church security team, or you don’t have any qualified members on it (those who have no experience in security but know that something is better than nothing), or you do have a team but need more people on it, then this is a way to recruit new members. It also puts in the mind of potential attackers that the church is a HARD TARGET because there is some sort of team. Of course, the congregation is never told how many members are on the security team (numbers and names are never revealed). The only person they should know for sure is the Director of Security, and that person’s name and contact information can be given if a person enquires about joining the security team.
Recruitment for the security team members should be placed in the bulletin once a quarter, and a stringent screen processes in place to make sure that no hostiles are recruited to the ranks.
It is unknown currently if Saint Stephen’s Episcopal Church has a security team or not. It is unknown if the hero who stopped the gunman was a church security officer, usher, or parishioner. Although this hero was in his 70s, many senior citizens fill the role of church security officers because few of the young are stepping up to the plate, or they are just not being recruited, and yet the next generation must see security as a permanent, vital, church ministry.
The lessoned to be learned in this tragic event is that even members of a church can become violent, and insider attacks are always problematic. Had there been a well-trained usher (trained in behavioral observation) or a church security officer at that event, then he or she may have noticed Smith being withdrawn, and perhaps other pre-conflict indicators. The church agent would have then approached Smith and asked him a few questions. Perhaps there would have an indication that “something is not right.”
Since an insider attack is always possible, realist training scenarios that include a change of behavior or suspicious activity, must be included from time to time. Indicators could be a divorce, loss of employment, a death in the family, or a growing hostility toward God or the church. Those who built on the wall, and those who carried burdens, loaded themselves so that with one hand they worked at construction, and with the other held a weapon. Every one of the builders had his sword girded at his side as he built. And the one who sounded the trumpet was beside me. Nehemiah 4:17-18